Pregame notes and quotes

NEW YORK - Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Ryan Flaherty is available this afternoon despite his exclusion from today's lineup.

Flaherty experienced some discomfort in his groin last night in his first game after coming off the disabled list.

"It's better," Showalter said. "You know, Ryan's never had a leg injury in his whole career. It's kind of like Kevin Gausman yesterday. I think you build up a little bit scar tissue there in two weeks. Straight away, he's fine. He just felt some tightness when he made some turns.

"The very first play of the game, the chopper off Miguel (Gonzalez's) glove. But I just want to be a little cautious with it today. Quick turnaround, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good he felt today. He's out here now."

Flaherty said he felt the groin while running out a bouncer to the mound in the second inning.

"It was kind of aggravated for the next four or five innings, but I feel good today, I feel better today. I can play," he said.

"I was uncomfortable for the next four or five innings. It started to feel a little better toward the end of the game. I came in here and it was a little sore this morning, but kind of got it warmed up and it feels better now."

(Yes, we're talking about warmed-up groin muscles here. I leave no stone unturned, so to speak.)

Adam Jones apparently hit his upper rib cage area last night while trying to make a leaping catch at the fence, but he's starting today. Was there ever a doubt?

"He won't talk about it too much," Showalter said. "Kind of like kryptonite. He just wanted to talk about how he should have caught that ball."

Showalter didn't assume that Jones would be able to play today, but the odds favored it.

"He takes his commitment to this club and everything very seriously," Showalter said.

"He fouled a ball point blank off his shin last night, on the other foot other than the pad. You ever done that? Somebody take a sledgehammer up there sometime and just hammer it off your shin and then have 40,000 people going, 'Get in the box.' Really? And you're trying to hit at a major league level, one of the 750 great players in the world. It's hard. It's tough as nails.

"He snuck in the cage. I caught him last night. He snuck in the cage after he did it to see how it felt swinging a bat.

"It's like Ryan Flaherty. I had to go on the field because I knew Ryan was ducking the trainer. I wanted to see Ryan's eyes a little bit and see what he was feeling. We didn't really have an infielder on the bench. We kind of invented one with Steve (Pearce)."

Showalter said he saw the replay of Alex Rodriguez's triple, when Jones slammed into the fence, to detect where umpires should have ruled fan interference.

"They were never going to call it," he said.

Jimmy Paredes received his American League championship ring today before batting practice. The Royals sent a representative to Yankee Stadium to present it to him.

Paredes appeared in nine games with the Royals before joining the Orioles.

On this date in 1961, first baseman Jim Gentile hit grand slams in the first and second innings in a 13-5 win in Minnesota. Gentile became only the third major leaguer to hit two grand slams in a game and the first to do so in consecutive innings. He also had a sacrifice fly to set the franchise record with nine RBIs.